


Masked Beauty

by Wyatt



Series: The One That Got Away [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Crush at First Sight, First Meeting, M/M, Masked ball, Teenagers, high school dance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-17
Updated: 2013-05-17
Packaged: 2017-12-12 03:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/806659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wyatt/pseuds/Wyatt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two strangers. One masked ball.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Masked Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> All mistakes are mine. That said.. enjoy!

Clint's POV

There had been a time in Clint's teenage years, where he used to crash High School dances with his friends. He especially remembers one masked ball at a fancy private school where he met his first love for the first time. It was a very short lived romance, though. He just shouldn't have taken that damn mask off.

“Clint! Are you coming or what?” shouted Natasha from downstairs, her voice carrying through the open door of Clint's room on the first floor. “Jeez, give me a second, will ya?” Clint shouted back, while tucking his shirt in and putting on his tuxedo jacket. He quickly grabbed his mask on his way out and went downstairs, where his friends were waiting. “Finally.” said David and pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against. “Can we go now?” asked Natasha. “Yes, we can go now.” replied Clint, sounding only slightly annoyed.

A while back Clint would have never crashed a High School dance, let alone thought about crashing one. Especially not if the dance was held at a fancy private school, but since he and Natasha had become friends with David this kind of things had become normal somehow. It should worry him, but it didn't. Who cared if David was bad influence on them? Clint was finally able to be himself, although it was just for one night every now and then.

The three of them got into David's car, a black jeep. Natasha had called shotgun, so Clint had to sit in the back. He didn't really mind that, though. He liked having eyes on everyone, something that was easiest from afar or in this case behind. He took in his friends' outfits, while David turned the engine on and drove them onto the street. Natasha had rented a simple scarlet red gown with matching red pumps and a golden mask with a few equally golden feathers. David wore a tuxedo just like the one Clint had rented and a black bow tie, his mask, whereas Clint's mask was black with purple squares at it's edges, was white and covered not only his nose and the skin around his eyes, but half his face, too.

They decided to park the jeep a few blocks away from the school and walk the rest, Natasha complaining about her shoes the whole way. “Then take them off for gods sake.” sighed David eventually. “No.” retorted Natasha, but stopped complaining after that. Clint just rolled his eyes at the two of them.

As they arrived at the party, they didn't bother getting in line at the entrance, but went immediately to the back door and slipped in as soon as someone came out to take a smoke or something. They passed the bathrooms while following the hall to a divided staircase that lead them into a small ballroom with an impressive high ceiling. Only a few couples were already dancing on the dance floor. The rest of the students stood in small groups to the sides of the room and were engaged in different conversations.

Clint turned to look at his friends, pretty sure they would be each others first dance. “Well.. I'm going to get a drink.” he said and left them to figure that thing between them out for themselves. David and Natasha only nodded at him, a slight blush covering both their faces hidden by their masks. “Dance?” asked David awkwardly. Natasha answered him with a shy smile and the gesture of taking the hand he offered her. David returned her smile and lead her down the stairs to the dance floor. Clint watched them for a while, before looking for a potential dance partner himself.

There were so many girls in pretty dresses only waiting for someone to ask them to dance, Clint felt torn. It was true that Clint had come here to be himself and preferably dance with boys, but that required a lot of courage Clint hadn't build up yet. Especially not for his first dance of the evening. Luckily, though, Natasha approached him after her dance with David had ended and saved Clint from sitting out another song just because he couldn't put himself together and already ask somebody, anybody. “Dance?” she asked with a smile. “Yes.” answered Clint more relieved than he thought he would be and took her hand.

It took David only seconds to come and join them on the dance floor with a pretty blond in a blue dress. Natasha sent him death glares throughout the whole dance, which David just shrugged off, which in return made Clint only roll his eyes again.

Although Clint was supposed to lead the dance, Natasha swirled them around like a mad woman, so she could keep an eye on David. It was during all that swirling that Clint locked eyes with a pretty brunet wearing a black mask with gold and red rays. It wasn't really the flirty kind eye-locking, but it still made his stomach do funny things. Especially when the boy didn't look away again, but smiled at him in sympathy instead – probably because of how Natasha was manhandling him. Clint wouldn't have looked away either, if it hadn't been for Natasha once again swirling them around.

Clint danced with a few girls after that, but as soon as the music changed to slow dancing, he started searching the room for the boy with the gold-red mask. He spotted him standing by a group of three other students a few feet away. It's now or never, Clint, he thought and braced himself mentally, before he made his way over to the boy, making sure that his approach was decisive and his eye contact solid while doing so. Man, was he nervous.

Tony's POV

There had been a time in Tony's teenage years, where he used to crash High School dances with his friends, too. In his case only the ones with themes where the students remained anonymous, though - for obvious reasons. His last dance had been a masked ball at a fancy private school. Nothing like the one Tony had went to back then, but still.. the students took their theme pretty seriously.

Tony was engaged in deep conversation, when one of his friends pointed out, that somebody was approaching him. He turned around, expecting a girl, but was surprised to see the boy from the dance floor instead. Was their cover blown? Before Tony could say anything, though, the boy offered him his hand in an elegant gesture. Wait. What? “May I have this dance?”

It was the first time that another boy asked him to dance. He was a little perplexed and wanted to decline at first, but then remembered that they were totally anonymous. Maybe this was the only way for the boy to dance with another boy and Tony certainly didn't want to discourage him. So he said yes and took the hand offered to him. Some of the students starred at them at first, but soon Tony's friends where the only ones left watching them and even they turned their attention back to dancing eventually. The boy was a great dancer, by the way. Tony told him that too. “You aren't that bad yourself.” came the playful response.

Tony couldn't be sure, that the boy was really gay, but he still wanted to be careful. He couldn't allow the other boy to like him too much. A difficult task at hand considering Tony's great looks and character. As their dance was over, they continued talking instead of parting ways, though. Tony learned that the boy was almost as cocky as he himself and just the right amount of funny. He really enjoyed talking to him. They could be great friends. It made him almost sad to know that they wouldn't see each other again.

Eventually a girl approached them and asked Tony to dance with her. It was a social event and the students were supposed to dance with as many other students as possible, but somehow Tony caught himself looking at the boy for permission. It was embarrassing. Anyway. The boy only grinned at him and gestured for him to go ahead. Suddenly Tony was very glad for the mask he was wearing, since it was able to cover his blush. He wasn't seriously falling for the unknown mysterious male, was he? No. The boy had charm, though.

Somehow Tony had lost sight of the boy during his dance with the girl. He hadn't been able to find him again afterwards and really didn't care to hide his disappointment, either. Just as the last dance of the evening was about to begin, though, he saw him again and quickly made his way over to him, hoping he hadn't promised this dance to somebody else yet. “Are you still free?” he asked. The boy turned around and seemed to recognize him, judging by the enormous smile forming on his face. “Not anymore.” he answered and took Tony's hand.

It could have been Tony's imagination, but their second dance seemed way more intimate than the first one. The boy's hand on his shoulder sent rays of warmth through his body, while his hot breath clung to his neck. Tony had his own hand on the boys back and their eyes were locked once again, his opposite following his every step. “What's your name?” Tony hesitated a second at the sudden question before answering. “Tony.” he said. Instead of offering Tony his own name in return, though, the boy stopped their dancing and tugged Tony with him to the side of the dance floor.

“Aren't you not gonna tell me your name?” asked Tony. Obviously not, he thought as the slightly taller boy – and, wow, did I really realized that just now? - remained silent. Suddenly Tony was getting nervous and even thought for a second that the boy was about to kiss him. It would have been his first real kiss, if he had. Instead, the boy reached for Tony's mask. Tony tensed. Any nervousness and fuzzy feelings were replaced by a flash of fear. The boy must have seen it in his eyes. “Don't worry. I'll keep your secret. I don't even go here to school.” he said and took off Tony's mask, before Tony was able to protest or explain or- or..

Silence.

There was silence and then as soon as the boy realized he was staring, he gave Tony his mask back. “I'm sorry.” he said. “Yeah.” replied Tony slightly bitter and quickly put his mask back on. “I'm so sorry.” the boy repeated, turned and took off. “Wait! Tell me your name!” Tony called after him. Or at least show me your face! The boy was gone, though. Tony tried finding the crazy girl in the red dress instead, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen, either. He let out a heavy sigh. The boy was gone, and as corny as it might sound, probably for ever.

That was the last time Tony went out with his friends to one of those dances. Up until today - even though he has Pepper now – he still asks himself “Who was that masked beauty?”


End file.
